Thomas Rhett Akins, 13 October 1969, Valdosta, Georgia, USA. Although his mother played piano and his grandfather led the church choir, Akins was more interested in becoming a football quarterback. Having married, he gave up his studies at the University of Georgia after a year, and worked for his fathers oil and gas distribution company. He played guitar in his spare
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20 February 1986, Tacoma, Washington, USA. This US country artist made headlines in 2004 when, at the age of 18, his single In My High School reached the Billboard charts. Larsen spent his early childhood in California but returned to Washington State with his mother following his parents divorce. Introduced to country music by his stepfather, Larsen was so
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c. 1964, Alabama, USA. Raised in Bunker Hill, Mississippi, USA, Bates was encouraged to sing as a child by his adoptive parents. He learned gospel songs and a wholehearted and full-voiced manner of singing. He took a job on an oil rig but at the age of 17 sang at a restaurant in Columbia, Mississippi, and was promptly offered a regular gig. About a year later, now in Semina
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20 April 1969, Bethal Acres, Oklahoma, USA. Hayes family lived and breathed country music. His father, Don Hayes, was a professional musician and bought Wade his first proper guitar at the age of 11. The family suffered a traumatic period during the mid-80s when his father secured a record contract and moved the family to Nashville. The record company went bankrupt owi
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15 June 1971, Austin, Texas, USA. Treviño is a Mexican-American who sings in both English and Spanish. His first single was released in English as Just Enough Rope and in Spanish as Bastante Cordon, with a bilingual version also available. Similarly, his first album, Just Enough Rope, was also available in Spanish as Dos Mundos. He moved to Col
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12 April 1964, Texas, USA. Country singer-songwriter Deryl Dodd was 32 years old when he released his Columbia Records debut, One Ride In Vegas, in October 1996. He had begun his career several years earlier on the Texas honky-tonk circuit, having first picked up a guitar while a student at Baylor University in Waco. After graduation Dodd and his band became permanent fixtur
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10 March 1971, Cairo, Georgia, USA. With his roots in the farming communities of rural Georgia, Singletarys first musical influence came from his parents and grandparents who all performed in a gospel quartet. However, he was converted to the cause of country music by the voice of George Jones on local radio and by the late 80s he elected to pursue a professional caree
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1 May 1972, Houston, Texas, USA. One of the leading figures to emerge from the new Texas country music scene in the mid-to-late 90s, singer-songwriter and guitarist Morrows brand of good-time country rock has earned him a huge audience in his home state.Morrow began playing guitar while at high school but did not take his future vocation serious
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20 July 1959, Del Rio, Texas, USA. His father, who was a lawyer (as had been his grandfather and father before him), played guitar and sang and Radney, the second of four Foster children, followed his fathers example with regard to music. In 1979, dreams of being a country singer saw him drop out of university and move to Nashville in the hope of fulfilling his ambitio
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30 January 1972, Austinburg, Ohio, USA. This country singer was raised in rural Ohio, growing up in a music-loving, church-going family. Cochran began singing as a child with her two elder brothers, with the trio giving impromptu concerts for their parents. She later recalled her childhood and her brothers, who both succumbed to cystic fibrosis at an early age, on the song &
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14 September, 1959, Aiken, South Carolina, USA. The 90s country singer John Berry grew up appreciating soul music and the singer-songwriters of the early 70s. In 1981 both his legs were crushed in a motorcycle accident, but he recovered fully and decided to devote his time to music. He performed in Midwest clubs until settling in Athens, Georgia, in 1985. He self-financed si
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